Cloud Computing: Desires, Realities and Future Opportunity

Will Venters, University Lecturer (Information Systems) & Consultant, London School of Economics

Cloud computing has become central to current discussions about corporate information technology. To assess the impact and potential that cloud may have on your enterprise it is important to evaluate the claims made critically review these against your organisations’ reality. Drawing on extensive research this talk will walk through my “cloud desires framework” (recently published in the prestigious Journal of Information Technology). The framework is structured around a series of technological and service ‘desires’, i.e. characteristics of cloud that are important for cloud users.

This live demo will show you how you can seamlessly blend business communications into your cloud work environment, transforming Microsoft Office 365 into an enterprise-grade communications hub with an easy-to-use interface that is very simple for end-users to deploy and IT to manage.

Make it easy for employees to initiate PSTN calls and SMS, view screen pops with relevant information, automatically log the calls, and more -- without ever leaving Office 365. You’ll also see how easy it is to add new users and make changes as your business evolves with RingCentral’s cloud based communications system.

Our expert presenter will walk you through how it works and answer your questions. You’ll see:

•How to place calls with one click from within Office 365
•Views of customer profile and communications history
•Automated ticket creation from calls

The biggest challenge in security is no longer technology. We need to rise from recognition as security experts and experts within security teams to leaders protecting information from a world of risk and vulnerabilities.

Michael Santarcangelo cracked the code on the pathway to becoming an exceptional security leader. On July 30, 2015 at 1:00PM Eastern Michael will share the Exceptional IT Leadership Framework, including the 5 foundational elements, 9 competencies, and 5 essential habits. The webcast will explore the benefits of a framework-based, competency-driven approach to developing your leadership and how to assess where you really are in your leadership journey.

The first installment of our performance benchmarking Webcast series, “Storage Performance Benchmarking: Introduction and Fundamentals” aims to bring anyone untrained in the storage performance arts to a common base with the experts. In this first webcast, gain an understanding of the complexities of benchmarking modern storage arrays and learn the terminology foundations necessary for the rest of the series. This includes:
•The different kinds of performance benchmarking engagements
•Metrics: why the “right” metrics matter, and an introduction to the variety of metrics that may be relevant to your business
•Terminology basics: iops, op/s, throughput, bandwidth, latency/response time

A seemingly never-ending string of large scale data breaches across all sectors of the economy and government have had devastating affects on countless individuals — and irreparably damaged organizations of all kinds. It’s been proven that privileged users, and the accounts and credentials they use, are a crucial element in conducting a successful attack. But it’s possible to protect those users and stop data breaches in their tracks.

In this webcast, we’ll explain how Xsuite and privileged identity management can stop attackers at multiple points in the data breach lifecycle, preventing damage and disruption. Join us to learn:

- Who are privileged users and why are they important?
- How do attackers exploit privileged users and their credentials to carry out breaches?
- See a hands-on demonstration of Xsuite and how it can manage, control, and protect privileged users and credentials and your business assets.

Register now to join us live at 1:00 pm ET Thursday, July 30, 2015 or on demand afterwards.

In this webcast, we will go over Qualys hardware and virtual scanner appliances for internal and external vulnerability scans. We will then demonstrate how you can discover various assets in your network, prioritize them, execute vulnerability scans, and generate reports that would suit your needs.

Sharing documents through email can be risky! Sensitive data, or metadata, such as tracked changes or hidden columns in excel, can be hidden within documents and inadvertently sent outside your organization. This could potentially be very harmful.

Join us to see how Professional 9 helps protect your documents! We'll demo how to identify and clean hidden data from documents and how to securely send files outside your organisation.

2,000 firms are already enjoying the benefits of Professional 9. Attend this webinar to see why.

Join Dr David Soldani, VP Huawei European Research Centre, as he introduces the main ICT challenges and opportunities in EU, 5G vision and main research and innovation initiatives ongoing, globally.

He will describe a multitenant network and services vision and the most important 5G wireless, wireline and media enabling technologies, leveraging emerging technologies such as Software Defined Networking (SDN), Network Functions Virtualization (NFV), High Performance (HPC) and Mobile Edge Computing (MEC). With a special focus given to 5G as the nervous system of the Silver Economy, looking at a better age friendly environment (housing), which can help people live longer, independently and thus reduce costs of long term care. In this context, 5G will be an integral part of the overall solution to the ambient (housing) assisted living concept, where service robots, mobiles, holographic rendering, cars, etc. could be connected using 5G communication technologies. Conclusions will be drawn on the main standardization activities and roadmap towards the IMT for 2020 and beyond.

What's Docker? Why is it popular? What are containers? Why and how are they going to drastically improve how we build, ship, and run applications? How to get started with Docker and containers, and leverage them to achieve faster, safer deployments for software stacks big and small?

In this presentation, Jerome Petazzoni wil answer all those questions (and a few more) to give you a clear overview of Docker and containers, as well as a quick bootstrap to get started with this technology.

Most enterprises are still deciding what the core components of a cloud data warehousing and analytics solution should be. Come see how Red Hat deployed a secure cloud data warehousing architecture inside Amazon VPC using Amazon Redshift and S3. In this in-depth session, get practical advice on how Red Hat shortened the timeline to ingest new data sources and optimized query performance. Also learn how creating virtual data marts can lead to greater agility and faster insights.

Digital transformation is leading organizations to adopt cloud, SDN, converged infrastructure and containers. This IT transformation has opened the door to new threats and cyber attacks. Security needs to be built into the fabric through a distributed system that enables visibility and control to ensure comprehensive protection of virtualized and cloud assets.

Join this webinar to find out:
- What are the top enterprise trends in data center transformation – regarding leveraging cloud, SDN, converged infrastructure and containers?
- What are the current technology gaps in today’s security and visibility solutions? Why are they needed?
- What is the business impact of these gaps?

Learn how a distributed systems approach to data center visibility is the first step to greater security and the second is about control or the ability to take action. Hear about real-world customer use cases leveraging this approach that solve these challenging security issues.

The move from on-premises to the Cloud is a transition Microsoft itself undertook. Hear from Seth Malcolm, a Microsoft Senior IT Program Manager, about the process and the business impact. He also shares lessons learned and provide important recommendations for IT professionals.

To examine the real-world cost of cloud over time, 451 Research’s Cloud Price Index has been tracking the price of cloud since 2014. Like a consumer price index, our CPI is made up of a basket of goods, but in our case, it is a specification of the services required to operate a typical Web server application. The index shows a complicated and ever changing market where value, performance and even just price are difficult to measure. Being aware of the differences between options is the first step to gaining best value, using tools to compare them can ensure ongoing suitability.

When you take rendering horsepower to the cloud with our accelerated, platform-as-a-service virtual desktop infrastructure, the possibilities are endless. And each one involves seamless performance, lower capital costs, rapid on-boarding, and reliable security—with lightning-fast storage, optimized networking, and cutting-edge rendering. Discover how to enable even the most graphically intense tasks from anywhere in this webcast.

In this presentation, we will delve into everything Docker. Starting with the different components in Docker, we will go into details of what are the value adds of using Docker in your enterprise (or company), and what are the most popular scenarios that companies that are jumping on the Docker bandwagon are using the platform for.

At the end of this presentation, you will leave with an understanding of what the different components of Docker are, where you can leverage it in your organization, and what might be the quickest wins you can achieve to get you there.

From ecommerce platform selection to warehouse, order and product management systems, join ecommerce architect specialist Mike Bainbridge as he gives an overview of key software solutions for retailers.

Join Bob Plumridge, SNIA Europe Chairman, as he presents a brief overview of the solid state technologies which are being integrated into Enterprise Storage Systems today, including technologies, benefits, and price/performance.

He will then describe where they fit into typical Enterprise Storage architectures today, with descriptions of specific use cases.

The allure of cloud storage is strong. The promises of greater flexibility, lower cost and dependable reliability are appealing to IT organizations, but challenges and concerns weigh heavily on IT decision-makers. Recent research, sponsored by Hitachi Data Systems and conducted by The Economist Intelligence Unit, highlights the top issues, many of which can be avoided with the right approach to adopting cloud storage. Please join this session and learn about:
• The top cloud storage challenges and concerns of enterprise IT decision-makers.
• How to avoid roadblocks and reduce risk on your way to the cloud.
• Ways that Hitachi Data Systems can help.

45% of businesses surveyed said that they had experienced a data loss in 2014. Downtime can come from any direction, in any form, at any time. Astonishingly, three-quarters of IT professionals say that they have never calculated the hourly cost of downtime.

Join Mark Scanlon as he explores how you can reduce the impact of downtime on your business to near zero, whilst making it easier for you to manage your systems.

The CIO is faced with reconciling the, apparently, irreconcilable. How does he build a cost effective technology platform that provides business agility, and manages risk?

In this session, Steve O’Donnell explains the critical success factors in achieving that desired outcome, the considered compromises, the strategies and tactical approaches that the CIO will need to adopt to deliver business benefits and keep his stakeholders onside. He will look at the different types of application and how they need to be managed and hosted. Where do we build, where do we buy and where is configuration the right answer? How do we choose between in-house infrastructure, managed cloud services and engineered systems?

Join Stephen for a structured approach to providing a cohesive strategy for IT investment that makes sense, and optimises business outcomes whilst being simple enough to gain business stakeholder buy in and approval.

Running Enterprise IT is probably more complicated now than it has ever been. Many organisations are embarking on transformation projects to take advantage of the modern hybrid world. But with all that complexity how do you make sure your transformation is a success? Join HP to take a look at some of the areas you need to be considering when transforming your environment to achieve the better service levels and efficiencies you are striving for. We’ll talk about everything from discovering interdependencies through automation and changing the way you manage your new environment.

IT spend has become one of the largest budget line items in companies today. IT organizations worldwide spent over $4 trillion dollars in 2013 alone. Despite the growth in IT spend, many IT organizations do not have the capability to clearly and easily articulate where that spend is going, how it correlates to the services they are delivering or what value the business is realizing from the services.

In order to stay competitive, businesses are seeking ways to optimize and align future IT investment decisions with the strategic direction of the company. By making all of the costs of running IT transparent, IT can change the way business units consume IT resources, drive down total enterprise IT costs and focus on IT spending that delivers real business value.

Join Jerry Wertelecky as he discusses:

• Facilitate collaboration between IT and Finance to increase visibility into the costs, utilization and operations of all IT Services

• Leverage a deep understanding of what drives IT costs and performance to improve scenario planning capabilities and make better IT decisions

• Provide IT cost and consumption data to business owners in the form of a “Bill of IT” to more effectively communicate the value of IT to the business.

Decades of experience in fighting cybercrimes has greatly informed how Microsoft develops products. Michael Quinn (General Manager, Cybersecurity & Data Protection, Microsoft) discusses the features, policies, and practices that make the Microsoft Cloud so secure and set it apart from other options on the market.

This year’s Storage Developer Conference (SDC) is expected to draw over 400 storage developers and professionals. Get a sneak preview of key cloud topics that will be covered at SDC in this live Webcast where an expert panel will discuss:

You’ll learn how encrypted objects can be stored, retrieved, and transferred between clouds, how Object Drives allow storage to scale up and down by single drive increments, end-user and vendor use cases of the Cloud Data Management Interface (CDMI), and we’ll introduce Unistore - an innovative unified storage architecture that efficiently integrates heterogeneous HDD and SCM devices for Cloud storage systems.
This Webcast is live so please bring your questions for our esteemed panel of experts.

Cloud computing is a general concept that incorporates software-as-a-service (SaaS), platform-as-a-service (PaaS), infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) and other recent well-known technology trends in which the common theme is reliance on the Internet for satisfying the computing needs of the users.

This channel features presentations by thought leaders who cover the key topic areas in this increasingly important field.